Park Singers is an auditioned group that takes on more challenging music. They meet outside of school for rehearsals and perform at a variety of locations throughout the school year. Park Singers sang holiday-themed songs at US bank plaza Dec. 11.
Choir director John Myszkowski said that Park Singers is a group that is held to a high standard. He said how it is important to connect to music as a choral singer.
“It’s almost like a job,” Myszkowski said. “The expectation is that you’re providing background music, so they need way more songs than what they would do at their concert. It’s a combo of stuff they do in concert choir, plus what they do in Park Singers, plus some songs they’ve done in other years.”
Senior Coco Gruen said singing and performing the holiday songs was enjoyable.
“I like (singing holiday music). It helps me get into a festive mood,” Gruen said. “People seem to like it.”
Myszkowski said the performance wasn’t perfect, since it was the first time Park Singers had performed the songs.
“They’re not as loud as I would like them to be. This is their first venue they’ve done with these songs,” Myszkowski said. “It’s a little rough but that’s one of the reasons that we go out, so we get used to the public and to a different acoustical setting.”
According to Gruen, the concert as a whole was good, even though it wasn’t the best performance. Gruen said she felt her performance was good.
“I feel like I’m performing pretty good,” Gruen said. “We’re not messing up or anything. I wouldn’t say it’s our best concert, but it’s pretty good.”
Senior Dylan Austin said Park Singers had rehearsals outside of school helping the group to be overall prepared.
“We had quite a few meetings after school for a couple hours in total. Going through every song as a choir,” Austin said. “(We) showed up here and kind of winged it.”
Myszkowski said Park Singers is a time commitment but the group makes all the difference.
“The rehearsals are outside of the regular school day. So they need to make a commitment to it,” Myszkowski said. “(It’s an) easy group to work with.”
Austin said Park Singers is a fun space where you can laugh with your peers.
“I’d say it’s a pretty good environment,” Austin said. “We have a lot of fun after school. It’s more than just going through songs, you’re laughing all the time.”
The Park Singers are performing at Midtown Global Market on Dec. 15.
